Three things we learned about the Nuggets vs. the Thunder

Andre Miller can give you a boost on the post-up: At 6-2, 200 Andre Miller has the size to be effective in the post against opposing point guards. But against Oklahoma City he was near unstoppable on the block, posting up bigger players in James Harden and Reggie Jackson on a near regular basis. He had five post-ups in the game and here were the returns – foul, foul, score, score, turnover – an 80 percent success rate. Now, that turnover was the traveling call in overtime as the Nuggets specifically went to him in the post down by three at the time, so that matters most. But Miller on the block was a good idea, and will be in the future. He has not posted up a ton this season, but when Miller has – he’s 11-of-23 (47.8 percent) – he’s generally been good.

Chris Andersen was actually Nuggets’ best player off the bench: No, it doesn’t look the same anymore. Pretty much done with the high-flying and arm-flapping. It doesn’t mean the Birdman was any less effective. Andersen has quietly played good basketball lately and, at a whopping +17, was the Nuggets’ best plus/minus player of the game against OKC – by far. He was 5-of-6 from the field for 11 points, had six rebounds and three blocks, and just generally found himself in the mix all night long. Andre Miller’s double-double of 21 points and 10 assists was gaudiest stat line among Nuggets reserves, but Andersen, in 29 minutes was the team’s second-highest points per possession player (1.57) – only to Kosta Koufos, which leads us to…

… An Aggressive Koufos is the best Koufos: Kosta Koufos was benched against Memphis last Friday for ineffectiveness. He was benched again for the entire second half until overtime on Sunday for…well, we don’t know why because he was the Nuggets’ best points-per possession player at 1.67. He was the Nuggets’ best running big man, constantly beating Oklahoma City defenders down court for uncontested looks at the basket. Everything he accomplished was going toward the rim, whether it was filling the lane or cutting to the hoop or crashing the boards when the shot went up. And decisiveness worked. He did not waste time when received the basketball, he got it up to the rim. It all resulted in 13 points on 6-of-7 from the field with nine rebounds in 13 minutes, making Koufos the Nuggets’ most efficient player of the night.

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

We also learned that there is no one to step up in tight games! Too many mistakes at crunch time!

Cmrn631

I was listening to the game on the radio and it seemed to me the Miller killed us in OT. If Miller doesn’t want to play here either trade him or let him walk and the end of the season and bring back Billups, I don’t think he would mind playing along side of behind Lawson and I don’t think Lawson would mind one bit if the gave Billups the keys to the team.

kndh19

yeah, if only billups was not 1. hurt for the year or 2. under contract with the Clippers

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.